Friday, November 14, 2008

Teaching Maria to Play Cribbage

My son is off camping up at Stearns (fortunately in a shelter) so today seemed like a good night to start teaching my daughter Maria how to play cribbage. I learned to play cribbage when I was a youngster and I've always loved playing it. Besides being a fun game to play, it's an excellent game for teaching math skills and at 8 1/2 years of age, Maria is at the perfect age to learn.

So we sprawled out on the living room floor and I started teaching her the rules. Eventually Mrs. D came over and started helping Maria a little bit. As the hands continued and the pegs moved around the board, you could see the light come on, little by little. And by the end of the game, Maria had won, finishing off with a nice 16-point hand. She was delighted. And so was I. Besides, I'm used to losing to my kids in cribbage.